Green Team Challenge

Head teacher(myself): Let's consider what these students have said. I must let the GTC know today which finalist we have chosen.

Deputy headteacher: I have looked through their profiles, but it was not easy to decide on. They all have their own strengths and weakness.

Head teacher: All right, let's have a look together.

Deputy headteacher: The first candidate is Marissa. She is a hard working, sporty student with good communication skills. She also likes solving problems which is required for this challenge. She likes being outdoors, so she should be able to adapt to the surrounding easily. What do you think? The second student is Didier who is very confident with his muscles and he seems to be extremely sporty, with map reading skills. He also manages football team and is handy with a hammer, but I personally do not want to choose him as our school's representative.

Deputy headteacher: Why do you think so? He has all the skills needed for survival like using tools and map reading and he is also exceedingly good in sports. I would choose this student. He looks like a person that can help others as well.

Head teacher: I partially agree with you, but when you look at how they speak or write, you can predict their characters. As you can see, the way he puts his words is very impolite. He thinks of himself as a  strong muscular man. I mean, it is good to have confidence in oneself, but he is a narcist. He would most likely look down on others during this team challenge and it is not going to be a good reputation of our school.

Deputy headteacher: I see, I get your point. He might not be the best choice. Let's move on to the third candidate now. Her name is Kim and she likes to think she's an all round achiever. She keeps fit by doing sports and she completed her lifesaving badges in swimming. She has also won a prize at the National Science Fair and she loves inventing which can help in solving problems. She was also the part of the Student Counselling Service for over a year.

Head teacher: She sounds sensible and she matches the requirement. We should decide on the finalist between Marissa and Kim.

Deputy headteacher: I suggest choosing Kim. She is well mannered and she is an intelligent girl.

Head teacher: I agree with you, by looking at her profile, she looks humble, honest and responsible as well. She can also work with others which is the most important part in teamwork and as she is the eldest, she would know how to care others. She would also be able to communicate well and take in information. So, our final decision is Kim and would you please let her know about it?

Deputy headteacher: Sure, I will inform her by the end of this week.

Great Expectations

Summary of first 20 pages of 'Great Expectations'

A boy named Philip used to call himself pip because that was the only way he could pronounce his name as a young boy. He introduced his name as Pip and others started calling him Pip as well. His parents were both dead and he lived with his sister. He liked going to the churchyard to see his parents' grave and used to sit there for quite some time. One day, he went to the churchyard as usual and found one odd, fierce man. He threatened Pip to bring food and files from the blacksmith, which was Pip's brother in law or else he would cut Pip's throat out. As a young boy, Pip feared him and ran back to his house. Like the man told him, Pip stole some food from the kitchen hoping he wouldn't get caught because they had a lot of food since it was Christmas. Without his sister noticing, he managed to take the file and food to the man in the churchyard. 


The next morning, when the family was having breakfast, Pip's sister drank the brandy that was refilled by Pip after taking some for the man, and started jumping around. What Pip thought was water wasn't actually water but Pip's brother in law, Joe's medicine. Pip was extremely nervous that they might find out what he has done the night before, but they moved on and started looking for meat pie. Again, Pip was at the edge of his toes because he stole it too. Luckily, police officers came in asking if they had seen two convicts. The family was curious about it, so without looking for the pie, they went to find the convicts. The officers and the family managed to catch them and one of the convicts, who had received food from Pip the night before, confessed that he had taken some food from the blacksmith's house. That way, Pip could get over with the situation, without the family knowing that he was the one who stole food to give out to convicts. 

Do you know any elderly that you talk to? Nowadays, the elderly and teenagers have conflict in themselves, misunderstanding each other, without talking to each other. There is a new scheme for both teenagers and elderlies to get to know and learn from each other. This is definitely beneficial for both of them.

I read this article on the internet about Roberta and Samuel who entered this scheme. They both claimed the scheme was very helpful and it was a meaningful time for them. Roberta got more involved in activities throughout the scheme. Before, she was afraid to go out and talk to teenagers because of their appearance. But now, she is not afraid at all and she got rid of the fear she had towards new technology. She plays game console and she learnt how to use the laptop computer. She also had changes in her motto. She now thinks that trying new things is important because keep procrastinating does not help and you don't know when the chance is going to come again. The scheme also brought her old hobbies back. Looking at Samuel, her teenager pair, she took out her paintbox again and started painting. She's not afraid of meeting new people anymore. She visits Samuel's family often and she even cooks for them. She is more energetic and lively now than before she tried the scheme.

Samuel, teenager who participated in this scheme claimed that he learnt precious skills and memorable experience throughout this scheme. He has learnt what a person could achieve in life, how old people are interesting with full of stories to tell you and also learnt how to do banking. By helping Roberta, he learnt how to manage money and to deal with bank statements and bills. Roberta also made it interesting for Samuel to visit art galleries and museums by telling her own story. Before then, he never liked going to these places. Apart from learning and gaining experience, he also had fun and pleasure talking to Roberta. He is very satisfied with this scheme.

By spending time with the elderly, you can gain experience. By talking to them, you can get the most precious advices, experiences that they suffered from and not make the same mistake. These advices and experiences are not comparable with money. These are things that you can not buy, but learn from experience. However, by asking elderly, you don't have to waste your time suffering the same mistake that they made. This will help you become a more discipline and successful person. You can also learn skills like banking skills by helping them. This will help you later when you have to manage your own money instead of losing the money because you didn't know how to manage them. You can also learn about stories in the past which will help you in history. You will be able to have more knowledge which will be a benefit now or even later when you go to college.

The new scheme is time worthy and you can gain a lot of essential skills and knowledge which will help you in the future and in studying. You will also get to know how to treat old people which will definitely help you in life.

Have you ever tried playing games? Games have become an important part of our lives, especially for  teenagers. While there are many individuals supporting games, there are people opposing to this idea, most of them, student's parents or teachers. They both have valid reasons for their opinions.

Students who said games are beneficial claimed that games make them think more creatively which helps them in studies as well. Games like strategy games require your brain to think and figure the opposition's tactic so that you can protect your realm, as well as attacking more efficiently, assuming their strategy. This wakes your brain up and keeps it busy in order to win a game. Some spend more than 4 hours in one game to protect their realm.

However, because games are designed to be addictive, people spend a lot of time in front of computers without using their time for health purposes like exercising. Sitting in front of the computer damages your eyesight. No matter which screen protector you are using, light from computers damage your eyes gradually. Not only affecting your eyes, playing games affects your eating habits which might cause you to be obese or to suffer from malnutrition from not eating correct food. When you play games, you are so focused in the game that you don't want to ruin that moment by eating, so you tend to crave fast food or snacks which are not consisted of balanced nutrition.

On the other hand, playing games unable you to meet people and socialise. Nowadays, most of the teenagers play computer games and it's their way of 'socialising' when they play games in the same server. They also chat online while playing games and team games also require team work, so people can also learn teamwork and leadership skills through games. You can learn important skills as well as having fun and experiencing pleasure, through games.

On the contrary, games keep individuals isolated from real world. What happens in games are not real. For example, you can keep your pets and families in the game, but does it happen in real life? No, it doesn't. If you start playing games at a young age, you might find it hard to differentiate the society in real life and in the game. This might cause a person to be violent as they can kill people in the game and be rewarded. However, in real life, you go to prison. There are many cases where game addicts murdered human in real life, thinking it is inside a game.

Games can be useful and be helpful to certain people. It will be beneficial for individuals regarding that they manage their time properly and don't play it for a long time. However, it is very difficult task to manage oneself especially when it is very addictive. So we should try to stop ourselves from being addicted to games. Set alarm when you start playing game, so that you don't exceed the amount of time you planned to spend, don't be harsh on yourself and let your body rest at certain times.

Have you ever wondered.....

Have you ever wondered how retailers(shops) like Target and Tesco send you coupons that you really need? Are they magicians? How did they figure this out! The truth was.... when you make membership card of that shop, they collect your personal information like name, age and gender. Every time you use the card, what you bought will be recorded down and will be saved to their data. They figure out what you'll need and what your interests are and recommend you products that you might like by sending you coupons. There was an incident where a sixteen year old girl was pregnant and even before she told her parents about it, she started getting coupons for diapers and products that a pregnant women might buy. When her parents found out about this, they went to complain to Target about getting these coupons. Few weeks later, she told her parents and her parents had to apologise to Target. It is very interesting but we always need to be careful in handling our personal information as they can be used in crimes and other negative purposes. 

English past paper 2010

Dear Zach,

I just had my amazing day at a gorilla sanctuary and I thought it would be a good idea to tell you what happened, so that you can visit here next time. It was a whole new experience seeing gorillas right in front of my eyes. They were so adorable and interesting.

The first chimp I saw was named Max and he was wearing a nappy. Have you ever imagined a gorilla wearing a nappy? For me, it was unexpected, so I was so amused by the first sight. What's more is that they are intelligent, so they can communicate with people. Max was really curious about everything and we could see the trust between him and Mark, who he stays with all the time. Chimps are just like babies. They play with children's toys, cling onto people and love being hugged. They are full of emotions. They get jealous when their caretaker takes care of other chimps and they love getting the attention. Oh, did you know that chimps don't go bald when chimpanzees do?

I met two people there and they were Mark, who I mentioned before and Madame Yvette. They were both working in the gorilla sanctuary, and they were both passionate and open minded. We could see that they care a lot for their chimps, looking at how they treat chimps just like their own babies. However, they were different at times. Mark was rather calm and quiet when Madame Yvette was bright and active. They were both great at care taking the chimps.

While I was having a great time in the sanctuary, I heard a depressing news. They told me that hunters kill the mother chimp and take away the baby to sell it as a pet to villagers. It is rare for the baby chimp to be rescued and sent to the sanctuary and even if they do, they arrive in bad physical wounds and their stomachs are full of earth they consumed due to the dearth of food. Because these chimps are sensitive, the babies who experience the mothers' death, are traumatised and can even lead to them dying of grief, refusing to eat. There were twenty-seven rescued chimps but only four are still alive. The sanctuary needs our help to provide better care and cure for the chimps including food supply and medical supply. I have entered my name for being the constant volunteer and I am planning to make donations overtime. Don't you want to join me? It is going to be an enormous help for the baby like chimps and caring care takers.

Just consider what I suggested and I will be waiting for your answer! See you soon!

Love,
Lary

First language English past paper

Interview with Signor

Interviewer: Some people say you are an eccentric man whose behaviour is odd at times. Are they right?

Signor: I guess some people can take it that way, but I don't think my behaviour is odd. It's just what a great conductor should do. We need to have fixed rules and I'm just following my daily routines. I get so frustrated whenever something stops me from continuing what I want to do. I mean, we all have our own daily routines right? We can go to high class restaurants to eat curry and enjoy riding our limousine, don't we? For me, I get bored of the perfection and wealth and I need my ears to get used to the noises before concerts, so I take a taxi despite the inconvenience. I don't see how that is eccentric. If that is, that means all the people around the world are weird. I can't stand my plans or my daily routines being ruined. That is just being organised, isn't it? I can't find anything wrong in this.

Interviewer: Oh, I see. As you always stick to your plans, how did today's concert go? I heard that there was an unexpected happening that took place. Can you explain about that?

Signor: It wasn't a big problem for me, it was just a mistake caused by a new time keeper. It wasn't my fault, the time keeper told me the time late, so I didn't have any time to get ready and be prepared just like I normally do before I conduct a stage. Just like any other great conductors, I need to prepare for myself to be prefect as I always do.

Interviewer: Oh, I'm sorry if it disturbed you. Anyway, why do you like conducting? 

Signor: I have always loved music since I was a little kid and I always liked leading others and helping them get in the right way. As a young boy, I wanted to be a general but as I grew up, I was in love with the music and decided that I want to live my life with melody and rhythms, and I found this interesting profession called conductor which is somehow like general of a musical concert. I think I have a good leadership and I manage my feelings quite decently. I also love entertaining people. The performers also love me, and I love being a small part of a magnificent team.

Interviewer: So, it can count as you achieving your past dreams! I have the last question for you. Since you have worked as a conductor for a long time, do you think that the time has come for you to retire from conducting?

Signor: No, not at all! The more experience you have, the better you conduct. If I can, I wouldn't mind dying working as a conductor. Why would you want to stop it when so many people come to look at your concerts and they praise you, give you all the attention and more? I love getting the attention I get because I am the most important person in the music hall. If I retire, I think I will die of depression from not getting what I want and what I want to do. I know I have a lot of money and I am successful, but now, it's not my goal to earn money or experience, but interact with people and keep on being famous. I love the fame given to me. That is the most precious thing I could ask for in my whole life. 

Interviewer: Okay, Mr. Signor, thank you for your passionate interview and your amazing answers!

Signor: No problem. It has been a great honour to be interviewed.

Interviewer: It has been a pleasure to interview you and thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it very much. 



Corrections are in blue.